New Haven planners tackle CVS parking

By Mary O’Leary moleary@nhregister.com @nhrmoleary on Twitter

Published 11:03 pm, Tuesday, February 9, 2016

NEW HAVEN >> When is less actually more?

The developer of a proposed CVS pharmacy at the cornor of Dayton Street and Whalley Avenue was willing to get a special exception for 63 parking spaces, rather than the 70 they requested in order to fit better into the Comprehensive Plan of Review and the recommendations by city’s planning staff.

But since they city had advertised for 70 in the Board of Zoning Appeals notice, Deputy Director of City Plan Tom Talbott told the board it did not have the power to do this.

“You can give them less relief than what they asked for, but you can’t give them more than what they originally asked for and what was noticed. You can’t do that,” Talbott said.

Under the zoning rules, 113 spaces would have been required, which is why they needed a special exception to get approval for fewer. The city generally has been recommending fewer parking spaces than the zoning rules, which are expected to be revamped.

“More relief means less parking,” said City Planner Karyn Gilvarg, clarifying it for the board members, who at times seemed lost in the discussion.

In other action, the board approved a special exception for a private hookah club on the second floor, with a public food court for 27 Church St.; elected attorney Benjamin Trachten as the new BZA chair; approved additional liquor stations at the College Street Music Hall at 238-258 College St.; and approved a child day care center for the Walk of Faith Church at 46 Harrington Ave.

The longest discussion was about the CVS, with criticism expressed over the zoning rules.

Attorney John Knuff, who was representing Arista Development LLC in the CVS issue, said he was just trying to strike a balance “to satisfy the notice issue, but also satisfy Tom’s request to minimize parking as much as possible.”

The plan ultimately was referred to the City Plan Commission, as is customary, with a BZA vote next month. They were told they could not request 63 spaces with seven in reserve, It had to be a definite nunber.

After the meeting, Knuff said he would ask Arista whether they want to come back and officially seek fewer spaces.

Alder Richard Furlow, D-27, said his head was spinning from the discussion but he was happy that issues with the pharmacy seemed to be worked out.

The pharmacy, which is already nearby, is actually only relocating with this application.

“I want to compliment the developer on meeting the conditions on the development and also of City Plan coming together. This has been quite an experience, but this is a win for the community,” Furlow said.

The alder said CVS is promising to add more groceries to its offerings, which will better serve Chapel Haven, and personally he said he was looking forward to the drive-thru.

Furlow called the CVS “an anchor establishment that is needed in our community,” given the two senior homes in the area.

He thought the traffic would stay the same on Dayton Street, and the new location will take care of potential blight.

“I’m just encouraged that the city is working with the developer. We somehow have to become a friendlier city for developers. We have these ‘don’t make sense’ zoning regulations that just capture the developers and make it difficult for them to come in and to build in our communities. Downtown is beautiful, but we have areas of New Haven that really need development,” Furlow said.

Matt Nemerson, economic development administrator for the city, said he agreed with much of what Furlow said, but then added the perspective of his department.

“We gave these folks a hard time ... because we thought this was an important urban corner and because we think that national models of how pharmacies are built don’t always agree with the way we want to hold corners and we want to create a sense of place and walkability and grow property values,” he said.

Nemerson said the developers listened to the planning staff and gave them many of the changes that they wanted, such as moving the building closer to the street.

“This is a good, and ... a very proper dialogue and I think it is important for the city to be able to maintain a sense of what it feels an urban neighborhood should have in terms of buildings,” rather than cookie cutter models pushed by chain stores, he said.

He hoped they will come to City Plan at the time of site plan review with a building “that will also be urban and will not look as if it is taken out of a suburban location. ... We made a lot of great progress here.”

Knuff said they were “very cognizant of what they (the planning staff) are asking us to do and we have already been thinking about that as well.”

When it came time to elect officers for the next year on the BZA, Trachten said he would like to do it if the current longtime chairwoman, attorney Patricia King, was no longer interested. She said it was fine with her if he wanted the position. Gaylord Bourne was re-elected secretary. Both votes were unanimous.